Nintendo Finally Feels the Pain as Sony Continues to Struggle

For the first time, the economic downturn appears to have caught up with the maker of the Wii, as sales and profits plunge.

Nintendo continues to operate profitably, something that can't be said for Sony, which faces the same conditions that Nintendo does, but announced another losing quarter today.

To quote: Japanese electronics companies face two significant issues when it comes to the current economy. The first is that the crisis has caused the currencies of larger, stable economies to increase in value.

The strength of the Yen has meant that overseas sales, which constitute the majority for many of these companies, are worth less; both Nintendo and Sony have been hit with this problem.

The second issue is that consumer spending has dropped, which means fewer products sold. So far, this hadn't been as severe a problem for Nintendo, but the trend finally caught up with it this quarter.

Compared to the same quarter a year ago, handheld sales dropped by nearly a million units, to just under 6 million total (over half of those were the DSi). Wii sales dropped by more than half, with only 2.23 million sold in the previous quarter. Software didn't fare as badly, but did decline across the board.

Nintendo appears to expect that it can count on a strong platform in the Wii and Nintendo DS as the economy recovers.